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Re: Michael Crichton dies



That being said, he was also the enemy of Science and scientific
thinking
during the last decade of his life. <<<

To be fair, this wasn't a sudden turn of events; as much as I enjoy his novels, they are laced with anti-science and anti-scientific method philosophy. That includes the JP novels; the first one was more subtle in its "scientists are irresponsible frankenstein-monster creators with no judgement" theme that is a common character-foil, while the second JP was much more overt, ending the novel with a full frontal assault on scientific inference, even questioning the reality atomic theory because you "can't see" sub-atomic particles.

For Crichton's fiction work I would create the new genre "technofiction" rather than say he wrote science fiction.

Cheers,


Scott Hartman Science Director Wyoming Dinosaur Center 110 Carter Ranch Rd. Thermopolis, WY 82443 (800) 455-3466 ext. 230 Cell: (307) 921-8333

www.skeletaldrawing.com


-----Original Message----- From: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz@umd.edu> To: ddkrentz@charter.net; MKIRKALDY@aol.com Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu Sent: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 6:28 am Subject: RE: Michael Crichton dies



From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]
On Behalf Of David Krentz


I think we all owe a lot to Crichton, JP was a huge influence on a new generation of scientists, artists and closet dino-enthusiasts world wide (movie and book).

That being said, he was also the enemy of Science and scientific thinking
during the last decade of his life. His irresonsible promotion of
non-scientific counterclaims against climate and paleoclimate research
reached the very highest levels of power: "State of Fear" was required
reading by Senator Inhofe's (himself a climate change denier) Senate
Committee on Environment and Public Works. When George W. Bush wanted to
meet with a climate expert he didn't get a climatologist from NOAA or NASA
or a paleoclimatologist from USGS. Instead, he brought in Crichton.


Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796

Mailing Address:    Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
           Department of Geology
           Building 237, Room 1117
           University of Maryland
           College Park, MD 20742 USA